Finding truth requires effort, not a patronizing pat on the head. Anything virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy leads us toward truth. The opposites of those lead to untruth, to lies. It is a lie that our purpose on earth is to just skip happily through a rainbow world, picking flowers and having food handed to us, while our bodies remain healthy and strong and our friends all praise every single thing that comes out of our mouth. That's not reality.
It is truth to know that we are tested and tried by difficulty, trial, effort, faith, and perseverance. The most successful and happiest people you'll ever meet have experienced a lot of all of these. They give others the freedom to learn by similar experience, knowing that it is not their job to save them, but to love them, encourage them, and cheer for them when they go through difficulty of their own. If there is no absolute truth, then there is no absolute love. If there is no absolute love, there is no absolute answer.
I can help you find truth, confidence, relief, and hope for the future. Go to natewalkercoaching.com, click on the contacts page, and tell me how I might be of assistance. There are great things that you and I can do, and great tools that I have available to help you.
Truth: the Fairest Gem
Hello my friends.
The other night. I was driving along and the rain was pounding on the windshield of my car, and I started thinking about a conversation I had had about what truth really is. A bunch of words came to my mind and I just started talking into my phone, hoping to preserve what I was thinking at the time.
Rule eight of Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life is, "Tell the truth, or at least don't lie."
His thoughts about the vital importance of speaking truth are absolutely inspiring. Never has the world needed those words more than they do now. The Oxford [00:01:00] Dictionaries word of the year in 2016 was, "post-truth." I find that alarming. Post-truth was defined as, "relating to and denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief." That is descriptive of a world gone mad.
We are indeed drugged, but not by what Karl Marx called, "the opiate of the masses."
We have replaced a search for objective truth with platitudes about what the universe is giving us, or what we are manifesting from the universe. Once one discovers "the universe," that old fashioned idea of a supreme being gets tossed out in favor of something less demanding of our personal effort—of our blood, sweat, and tears. Some believe that it's not the universe, but [00:02:00] science, that is the real answer. A recent video I watched about the relationship between God and science reminded me that science, itself, is a religion. To insist that science is the one true source of all things that are real, is to break with reality. True science has always been exploratory and is ever changing. Questions must be asked and pursued and explored continuously, for us to learn anything of real value. There is no real settled science. Anyone that claims such a thing exists is speaking of scientific dogma. Of ideology.
Faith is required in all religion. Faith is required in a belief that the universe will manifest something, or that science is the only real source of truth. Some [00:03:00] political movements could be categorized as religious in nature. All of these faiths have their rites, rituals, leaders, prophets, and dogma. The strong temptation to subsequently force other people to see what you see, and believe as you believe, has existed for as long as mankind has walked the earth.
When we allow ourselves to move too far from the idea that we have personal responsibility for our own lives—when we allow ourselves to move too far from the idea that there is a God who created a universe full of order, and who is interested in our growth and success, we will find ourselves prone to blame everything we dislike on someone else, and credit something indefinable as the source, or potential source, of everything we want.
We justify actions that are [00:04:00] wrong when measured against objective truth, but deem them suddenly okay when the idea of truth is discarded in favor of a new "religion." When we replace true faith with greedy anticipation and self-centered feel-good rituals, morality is thrown to the wind. Once freedom is seen as freedom from consequence, and explicit permission to do anything to anyone without accepting any responsibility, freedom dies.
We sacrifice strength and virtue on the altar of a golden calf that acts a lot like the Santa Claus of hedonism. You will find that those who think the universe is in charge of their own happiness and pleasure—that pursuing pleasure and freedom from consequences and a hedonistic lifestyle will somehow bring them fulfillment—are miserable people.[00:05:00]
You will observe that they blame everything outside themselves for everything they're not thrilled with. They demand safety, demand that everyone else's behavior conform to their own, demand that others think the way they think, and demand that science itself be modified to support something they think might make them feel better. Our support for such delusions is not an act of love, but an act of cowardice and disdain—even hatred for our fellow man. Would you put yourself in that category? Would you deny the truth?
Finding truth requires effort, not a patronizing pat on the head. Anything virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy leads us toward truth. The opposites of those lead to untruth, to lies. It is a lie that our purpose [00:06:00] on earth is to just skip happily through a rainbow world, picking flowers and having food handed to us, while our bodies remain healthy and strong and our friends all praise every single thing that comes out of our mouth. That's not reality.
It is truth to know that we are tested and tried by difficulty, trial, effort, faith, and perseverance. The most successful and happiest people you'll ever meet have experienced a lot of all of these. They give others the freedom to learn by similar experience, knowing that it is not their job to save them, but to love them, encourage them, and cheer for them when they go through difficulty of their own. If there is no absolute truth, then there is no absolute love. If there is no absolute love, there is no absolute answer.
John Jaques, sometime in the [00:07:00] 1800s, wrote the following:
Oh say, what is truth? ’Tis the fairest gem
That the riches of worlds can produce,
And priceless the value of truth will be when
The proud monarch’s costliest diadem
Is counted but dross (that means trash) and refuse.
Yes, say, what is truth? ’Tis the brightest prize
To which mortals or Gods can aspire.
Go search in the depths where it glittering lies,
Or ascend in pursuit to the loftiest skies:
’Tis an aim for the noblest desire.
The sceptre may fall from the despot’s grasp
When with winds of stern justice he copes.
But the pillar of truth will endure to the [00:08:00] last,
And its firm-rooted bulwarks outstand the rude blast (that means the high winds)
And the wreck of the fell tyrant’s hopes. (A fell tyrant means a really wicked, bad guy tyrant.)
Then say, what is truth? ’Tis the last and the first,
For the limits of time it steps o’er.
Tho the heavens depart and the earth’s fountains burst,
Truth, the sum of existence, will weather the worst,
Eternal, unchanged, evermore.
As always, if I can help you find truth, find confidence, find relief, or help you in any way, go to natewalkercoaching.com, click on the contacts page, and tell me how I might be of assistance. There are [00:09:00] great things that you and I can do, and great tools that I have available to help you.
We'll talk again soon.